Ethylene production sales from Geismar, which previously were scheduled to start in October, are slated to begin this month, the company said (OGJ Online, Aug. 5, 2014).

The delayed start-up stems from ongoing activities related to safety-related upgrades at the plant, said John Dearborn, Williams Partners’ senior vice-president of NGL and petrochemical services.

“Some of these commissioning activities have taken longer than originally planned, but as we have stated throughout this process, safety is our No. 1 priority,” Dearborn said.

Additional safety modifications made during the plant’s expansion and rebuild increased capital spending for the project by $20 million, Williams Partners said in August.

In late October, the company confirmed that commissioning and start-up processes were under way at Geismar, but operations personnel still were directing dry-out activities at the plant (OGJ Online, Oct. 29, 2014).

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The 600 million-lb/year Geismar expansion project was designed to boost the plant’s ethylene production capacity to 1.95 billion lb/year from 1.35 billion lb/year, with Williams Partners’ share of the total capacity amounting to about 1.7 billion lb/year.